
Players from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish walk to the field through the student section for warm-ups before a game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Notre Dame Stadium on September 4, 2010 in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated Purdue 23-12. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Will the Notre Dame football team win more than nine games this year? HELL YES.
For those more cynical than me, the Golden Nugget Las Vegas will pay $100 for each $125 you bet taking the under.
SB Nation’s Bill Connelly recently crunched the numbers and said Notre Dame had a 59 percent or better chance of winning every game next year – except one. (The pre-season hype train is once again in overdrive for USC.)
Connolly wrote:
With only one projected top-15 opponent on the schedule, thanks to projected regression for Stanford and Michigan State, the Irish could follow last year’s “only lose to top-10 teams” recipe into the Playoff.
Still, the home-road splits and a conservative No. 11 projection suggest this will be another season of heartburn and close games. Five Notre Dame contests are projected to finish with a one-possession margin.
There isn’t a sure loss on the schedule. In fact, there’s only one game in which Notre Dame has a worse than 59 percent chance of winning. But operating in close games will be critical. That means finding go-to receivers for the quarterback in times of need, continued quality from Yoon, and a defense that improves up front despite turnover and holds steady in the back despite freshmen on the two-deep.
Sporting News said nine wins is probably right for the Irish. But if they were to lean, it’d be toward the over.
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